Jay-Z and Beyoncé look like a weight has been lifted from their shoulders .... because they were all smiles in their first public appearance since his rape accuser dismissed her lawsuit.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Well, Jay-Z and Beyonce were out in Beverly Hills this weekend, all smiles.
00:04With good reason.
00:06With very good reason, because they got a big legal victory on Friday.
00:12Can I quote Trump on this one?
00:13Huge.
00:14It was huge.
00:15Huge.
00:16Absolutely huge.
00:17It really is, because there was a woman who had come forward claiming that she had been
00:22raped by Jay-Z and Diddy back in 2000 at a VMA afterparty.
00:30And none of it made any sense, because the people who were supposedly there were out
00:34of the state, the place they were at wasn't right, there were a lot of holes in there.
00:40It was cheap.
00:41And she finally filed to dismiss that lawsuit, so she dropped it voluntarily.
00:47With prejudice.
00:48It could not be refiled, so this was not a case of a settlement, to be clear.
00:54She walked away, got no money, over.
00:59And Jay-Z celebrated that, the fact that...
01:02We should say, and it was filed by the lawyer who has filed a slew of lawsuits against Diddy,
01:09Tony Busby.
01:10Right.
01:11Tony Busby spoke to us for one of our Diddy Docs, and was pretty open about this strategy
01:20he has of sending these demand letters.
01:22He said this is the game, that you basically send somebody a letter saying, pay up or I'll
01:27sue, and if they don't pay up, they'll sue.
01:31And the point is that, especially for a famous person, it's career ending.
01:36Right.
01:37And Jay-Z calls it extortion.
01:39And in fact, he is suing Tony Busby over that.
01:42So even as the one accuser was dropping her lawsuit, Jay-Z was in court trying to make
01:49sure that his extortion lawsuit against Busby goes forward.
01:53And he mentioned something we had not heard before.
01:56He said that there was a second demand letter sent by Tony Busby to him last fall that mentioned
02:02a male accuser who, according to the story, as Jay-Z read it in the letter, claimed that
02:08he was underage at the time, and that Jay-Z was involved in a sexual assault against
02:14him in Beverly Hills.
02:15Jay-Z flatly denies all that, but says, this is this guy Busby extorting me.
02:21He's sending me a letter that, in Jay-Z's eyes, was very clear he wanted a large sum
02:26of money.
02:27Pay up or else, or else I'm going to blow the whistle on you.
02:28Yeah, and it's clear that Jay-Z's not letting this go.
02:31If you read his declaration in that case where he is suing Tony Busby, what he's saying is,
02:35I viewed these letters as an existential threat to my reputation, everything I've worked
02:39my whole life to build.
02:41And he wasn't going to take it lying down.
02:42So even though this lawsuit's been dismissed with prejudice, the one against him, it seems
02:46like Jay-Z's going forward and will continue to pursue Busby, maybe to sort of send a message
02:51that you can't do this to a certain type of celebrity, not him.
02:54Well, Jay-Z was calling Busby a 1-800 lawyer.
02:57Called him a 1-800 lawyer and says, the system needs to change.
02:59You can't have guys like this blowing up the lives of innocent people with allegations
03:05that you should be vetting and understand are not true.
03:10This is what Jay-Z had to say about this case against Busby.
03:14He said, I felt that Mr. Busby was placing a gun to my head, that I either bow to his
03:19demands or endure personal and financial ruin.
03:23As for the lawsuit filed on behalf of the female accuser, Jay-Z says, Mr. Busby purposely
03:30filed this on the eve of my daughter's premiere to put me in the position of having to choose
03:34between supporting my daughter or hiding to avoid the negative press.
03:38He's referring to Blue Ivy being in Mufasa.
03:43And he did go to the premiere and stood there and took photos.
03:47Didn't say anything to the media, but he posed for those photos.
03:50And he just said that this is what's wrong with the system.
03:53He says this has to change.
03:55And look, lawyers talk about this all the time, that there is a group of lawyers who
04:01will do this with celebrities.
04:03And they've made a big career out of it where, you know, and look, sometimes these cases
04:08are legit.
04:09But then the question is, how far does the net go, right?
04:11Well, I don't think you want to constrict the net too much that they have to sort of
04:14prove their case before they file it.
04:16You want to encourage people to file for the redress of their grievances, but you don't
04:20want lawyers to look the other way or put their head in the sand about contrary facts
04:23that might undermine their case just to score a quick settlement.
04:26So there is a balancing act there.
04:27I know Jay-Z wants to send a message, but to speak for lawyers, you know, you do want
04:31to be able to send demands before you file lawsuits.
04:35Hey, this is Gentry from Georgia and Beyonce and Jay-Z are not in this type of controversy.
04:42So I'm not surprised that Jay-Z is going to go for Buzbee full-fledged, especially
04:47when he thinks it's personal and that he did it before Blue Ivy's premiere.
04:52I think it's going to go down and Jay-Z is not playing any games with him at all.
04:55I got to tell you, when you look at Alex Spiro, Jay-Z's attorney, who clearly won this case
05:03and remember what he did for Alec Baldwin and Rust, where he, the whole thing blew up.
05:07I mean, he's on a roll.
05:08Yeah, he is on a roll.
05:12He's on a roll.
05:13He's on a roll.
05:14He's on a roll.
05:15He's on a roll.
05:16He's on a roll.
05:17He's on a roll.
05:18He's on a roll.
05:19He's on a roll.
05:20He's on a roll.
05:21He's on a roll.
05:22He's on a roll.
05:23He's on a roll.
05:24He's on a roll.
05:25He's on a roll.
05:26He's on a roll.
05:27He's on a roll.
05:28He's on a roll.
05:29He's on a roll.
05:30He's on a roll.
05:31He's on a roll.
05:32He's on a roll.
05:33He's on a roll.
05:34He's on a roll.
05:35He's on a roll.
05:36He's on a roll.
05:37He's on a roll.
05:38He's on a roll.